Your Thursday Morning Roundup

Last night was how you bounce-back after a really bad loss for the Flyers.

Against a very young Ottawa team, the Orange and Black got a big game from Jake Voracek, who put up two goals and three assists in a 7-4 win over the Senators.

Things were tight for most of the first two periods, as both teams exchanged goals. The Sens had all four of their goals scored by rookies, with fourth overall pick Brady Tkachuk, the son of Keith Tkachuk, scoring his first career NHL goals. But a little before the second intermission, the recently promoted Scott Laughton put home the team’s fourth goal of the game. That would lead to two more unanswered goals in the third, with Laughton putting home an empty netter late.

Calvin Pickard recorded his first win since last December and stopped 31 of 35 shots. As for Voracek’s night, it was the first time a Flyer recorded five points since Claude Giroux achieved that mark against the Sabres in 2012.

Despite the win, the Flyers lost Nolan Patrick early on due to an upper-body injury. No word on how long he’ll be out yet, but we should know today or tomorrow.

Next up for the Flyers is their second and final meeting with the Vegas Golden Knights. That game is at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday at 1 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

The Roundup:

It’s gameday for the Eagles. They made the short trip up 95 yesterday as they get ready to take on the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium at 8:20 PM on FOX.

Just this morning, the team added right tackle Lane Johnson to the list as “questionable” due to an ankle injury. It doesn’t sound good:

More on #Eagles OT Lane Johnson: My understanding is this high-ankle sprain he was battling is something that will make it difficult for him to play. He’s going to do everything he can and will test it pre-game. But he has an uphill battle. Halapoulivaati Vaitai is his backup.

When I sat down with Under Armour, one of the first things we talked about was how this can be bigger than just shoes, bigger than just basketball. I want to help change people’s lives like Luc changed my life.

It’s so crazy … I went back to South Africa this summer for Basketball Without Borders, and all these kids from the camp were looking up to me, and I mean … seven years ago, I was them. They were me, you know what I mean? Some of these kids, you can just see it in their eyes. You can see the pain. You can see the daily struggle. Life is not easy. I’ll never forget … We were visiting one of the orphanages in the city one day, and this little kid in the corner was looking up at me … he’s looking, he’s looking … not saying a word.

And then he runs up and jumps in my arms and gives me a big hug, like I was his dad or something. It was amazing. These kids have nothing, but they have so much love. They got so much to give the world.

Basketball has given me everything, but it has to be bigger than basketball. That was the first thing that I said to Under Armour, and they were behind it 100 percent. This isn’t about a shoe deal. I mean, listen … I’m gonna make sure they design some shoes as pretty as I am. Don’t worry about that. We’re gonna take care of that.

But this is bigger than that. I want to use this partnership to do something real. I want to do something that would make my brother proud.

And I want to start in Philly.

Speaking of big international stars, Ben Simmons is a huge star in Australia.

A little similar to Markelle Fultz trying to find his jump-shot, Scott Kingery was trying to find his swing in his rookie year.

It was a disappointing development for both the Phillies and their former top prospect, especially after a spring training in which he hit his way into a six-year, $24 million contract and onto the opening-day roster despite having played only half a season in triple A. And while it hardly disqualifies Kingery from eventually reaching his potential — plenty of players have gone on to solid careers after struggling through their first 500 or so at-bats — it does beg the question of why he was unable to shake the worst slump of his life.

Kingery has a few theories. For one, he believes the search for a solution caused him to tinker too much in the batting cage and lose what he calls his “natural swing.” For another, his playing time got cut after the Phillies traded for Asdrubal Cabrera in late July, a move that Kingery concedes was prompted by his own struggles. With fewer consistent at-bats, it became more difficult to go on a hot streak.

Then there was the stress of trying to justify both the contract and the hype. Kingery said it was a “daily struggle to figure out my swing.” And it couldn’t have helped his self-confidence when manager Gabe Kapler lifted him for a pinch-hitter before his first at-bat of a Sept. 15 game at Citizens Bank Park.

“I just put too much pressure on myself, and it made me start thinking, ‘All right, I need to do something to fix this,’ ” Kingery said. “When I did that, I dug too deep into my swing and started messing with things when I didn’t need to. Then I changed my swing and it was constantly changing after that. I think the learning experience is to simplify everything. I think that the less you do, it can almost help you.”

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Chris is the Morning Roundup writer on Crossing Broad. He recently graduated from Syracuse University and was the video coordinator for the men's lacrosse team. He's previously covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine’s Birds 24/7 and KYW Newsradio 1060. Chris is also a Production Assistant at ESPN and the Managing Editor for the college lacrosse website College Crosse.